Leadership in the Face of Opposition

Go ahead and turn your Bible to Nehemiah chapter 4. Nehemiah chapter 4, like I said earlier, we'll be in verses 1 through 6. Now the last time that we were in Nehemiah, we did something that I do not like to do, we covered an entire chapter, which was chapter 3. It's a very lengthy portion of scripture to cover. This chapter can be seen by some as insignificant or unimportant, but we did learn some very practical and applicable truths from the chapter. Now here in chapter 4, we go a little further into the work of the people building the wall, but part of the work which was not very appealing comes to the surface.

And that part of the work was opposition. Here we will see that opposition to the work really arises. Now if you have a good memory, you'll remember that back in chapter 2, there was opposition that did meet Nehemiah. Going back to chapter 2 verse 19 a little later in your own study and review that, there was opposition that met Nehemiah when he first came, and he called the Jews to join him in the work. But now we see this opposition from chapter 2 circle back around, and it becomes more forceful, and it becomes a very much a frontal attack. A frontal attack.

Now all throughout our studies in Ezra and so far in Nehemiah, we've seen opposition to the work of God, and the vital importance to godly leadership in that opposition. We know, you know, that all through the book of Ezra, there were men like Ezra who had strong backbones to do the work of God, and opposition would not deviate them from that work. And that is just what we have here in Nehemiah. Nehemiah was the man for the time, he was the man for the work, yes he was even the man for the opposition. Now, I want to pause here and I want to reflect on that.

Now I know this is introductory material, opposition's arisen, it's circled back around, Nehemiah is the man of God for this day, this time, and this hour, but I want you to see something about Nehemiah. Because you must understand that circumstances like this are allowed or ordained by God, this did not happen by accident or happenstance. But how does Nehemiah react? What does God do in Nehemiah? What are the choices that he makes? All of this is very important, because his reaction to these circumstances determines so much.

One of the resources I use is called a New American Commentary, it's a series that has multiple authors, it's very conservative and a good work, but the New American Commentary says this, "The real test of a leader is how he or she faces crisis and reacts to opposition. This chapter recounts several forms of opposition and how Nehemiah confronted them." In other words, what Nehemiah does in the face of opposition. One thing that God used years ago, or one quotation that God used years ago in my life, was from A.W. Tozer. He was very noted for his writing on worship and prayer. He pastored for many, many years.

He's very well respected from many different people in many theological circles. But A.W. Tozer says this, "Circumstances do not make men, it is their reaction to circumstances that determine what kind of men they will be." That is exactly what we see in Nehemiah. He determined to be the man of God for this day and this time, and he confronted the opposition. And because of how Nehemiah reacted, we're going to see some wonderful success in the work. So, Nehemiah did not let opposition knock him off his horse. He rose to the occasion to lead the people in the work as a strong, resolute man of God. You need to see that.

You need to see that he was a strong, resolute man of God. Now, in application, all through Ezra and Nehemiah, I have been paralleling the work of God then with the work of God now, which is the church. All through this study, that's what I've been doing. Just as in their day, opposition was a part of kingdom work, and true Godly leadership was needed in that opposition, and today, more than ever, we need this type of leadership. Doesn't matter what kind of church it is, we need Nehemiah-type men to govern the affairs of the church. So I want to pause there, and I want to ask you, please to pray for me and Brother Keith. Pray for us.

Pray for the future leaders of this church. Pray for the future elders of this church. Brother Keith and I pray for the future elders, who they may be, because we do believe God will bring other men to lead in this capacity. Pray for the deacons in the life of this church that we will need to appoint one day. Pray for leaders, because we need leaders like Nehemiah. And again, I've been paralleling this work then with the work of God now, which is the church, and there's so much that is relevant all through this book for us. Now that leads us to the title of the message, and that is leadership in the face of opposition.

Leadership in the face of opposition. You see the truths that we're going to explore. Four main truths that come out of these verses. Opposition to the work, which is ridicule. Nehemiah's leadership, which is prayer. Then the success of the people, in the unity of the people. We'll spend more time with the first two main truths in the last two, number three and number four, are a lot shorter. So we have opposition to the work, which is ridicule. Nehemiah's leadership, which is prayer. The success of the people and the unity of the people. Let's look at our scriptures together, starting in verse one.

"Now it came about that when Sanballat heard that they were, or we were rebuilding the wall, he became furious and very angry, and he mocked the Jews. And he spoke in the presence of his brothers and the wealthy men of Samaria, and said, 'What are these feeble Jews doing? Are they going to restore it for themselves? Can they offer sacrifices? Can they finish in a day? Can they revive the stones from the dusty rubble, even the burned ones?' Now Tabiah the Ammonite was near him, and he said, 'Even what they are building, if a fox should jump on it, he would break their stone wall down.'" Then verse four, "Hear, O our God, how we are despised.

Return their reproach on their own heads, and give them up for plunder in a land of captivity. Do not forgive their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out before thee. For they have demoralized the builders." And then verse six, "So we built the wall, and the whole wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind or a heart to work." So let's dive right into these verses, these scriptures, and let's divide these truths before us. Truth number one, I want us to see the opposition, or opposition, to the work which is ridicule. We see that in the first three verses.

First three verses, "Now it came about when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became furious, very angry, and he mocked the Jews." And then verse two says, "He spoke in the presence of his brothers and the wealthy men of Samaria, and he said." And then he begins to ask these questions. And then there in verse three, we see Tabiah chime in, join in, in this ridicule. So here we have two names mentioned. Now, they were mentioned earlier in chapter two, verse 19. That is Sanballat and Tabiah. These men were not Jews. They were not part of the people of God.

Most Bible scholars believe Sanballat was a Moabite, because he was from the town which was in Moab. Here, Tabiah is called an Ammonite, again, like in chapter two, verse 19. Now, it is interesting that Tabiah was a Jewish name, and some commentators speculate that he was a descendant of Tabiah listed in Ezra chapter two, verse 60. Those in Ezra chapter two could not prove their genealogy, thus proving their pure Jewish descent. So they were excluded from the work. If that is the case, he would have been a descendant of a mixed-race Jewish people. Now, we do not know. There's no way we can know.

But what we do have is two individuals who are here as part of the ridicule. Now, four observations about this opposition. First, I want you to see the spirit of their opposition. The spirit of their opposition. Look at verse one. "Now, it came about when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became furious and very angry, and he mocked the Jews." Now, notice the language used here in verse one, which reflects Sanballat's spirit in the matter.

The English Standard reads, "Angry, greatly enraged." The King James reads, "Roth, great indignation." Now, these are verbs which tells us he was acting out, and these verbs are synonymous which communicate that he was very angry, very hot. In other words, these are verbs that communicate the same thing, but they are layered. The Amplified reads, "Great rage." So his spirit is this. He was enraged, and he was acting out in that rage, and we will see that this was a contagious anger, a contagious rage. So he's acting out in this spirit of opposition. Second, I want you to see the company of opposition. The company of opposition.

In verse two, "And he spoke in the presence of his brothers and the wealthy men of Samaria, and he said, 'What are these feeble Jews doing?'" I've already mentioned that Tamaiah was part of this opposition, but notice that Sanballat draws others in. In verse two, we see that he brings in brothers and wealthy men. Now, most commentators believe that the brothers would have been his inner circle of counselors, and the wealthy men can be translated as army.

Now, some have speculated that this was a Persian, these were Persian military officials, whom he would have had some influence over, while others speculate maybe that this was some type of Samaritan group or Samaritan army. Whoever this is would have been, this would have been part of a rebellion against the Persian king. So mostly this would have been hot air or just a lot of talk, because they dare not have rebelled against the Persian king. Now, the important thing isn't who this is, but the important thing is to see that Sanballat is gathering a company or a group for the purpose of opposition. So there's the company of opposition.

Then notice the third observation is the angle of their opposition. The angle of their opposition. Notice in the second portion of verse 2, he begins to ask these questions. This is their angle. This is their approach in this opposition. The New American commentary says that they used psychological warfare. John MacArthur says they used intimidation. I believe it's both. This is a psychological intimidation. Now, notice Sanballat's angle. He asks a series of rhetorical questions. A rhetorical question is a question which is asked expecting no response, but for the purpose of effect.

Remember, he is outraged, and these questions are doing nothing more than fueling his outrage and attempting to fuel the outrage of those in his company. This is his angle. You see? Now, notice these questions. First question, what does he say? What are these feeble Jews doing? Now, what is he doing in this question? He is attacking them in an area of their sensitivity. They are weak. They are few in number. They are a rag-tag bunch. So this question is an attack, and it is an attack on an area of sensitivity in their lives. Then notice what he says, are they going to restore it for themselves?

Here, he was trying to put doubts in their hearts. He is trying to cause them to doubt themselves with the work. Then notice he says, can they offer sacrifices? Can they finish in a day? Here, he was trying to undermine their trust in God. And then also notice he says, can they revive the stones from the dusty rubble, even the burned ones? This was using wrongful information because the gates were burned, but the stones were not. So this is wrongful information that is meant to discourage them.

The New American commentary says, concerning the psychological warfare, it says, psychological warfare can use truths to which people are sensitive, or have truths or falsehoods to intimidate the enemy. So you see their angle. You see those questions that are meant to interrupt or oppose this work? Then the fourth observation, notice the followers in this opposition. Look at verse 3, now Tabiah chimes in. "Tabiah the Ammonite was near him, and he said, 'Even what they are building, if a fox should jump on it, he would break their stone wall down.'" So this is a follower in this opposition. Here we see Tabiah just following Sam Ballot's lead.

Sam Ballot was calling a company to rally alongside him, and now we have Tabiah. And I call him his sidekick because he jumps right in behind Sam Ballot. Now, notice what Sam Ballot does. He ridicules the work, but he does so by spreading lies. He states that the wall could be knocked down or knocked over, even by a fox, when in reality that could never have happened because of how massive the wall was. I don't know if you realize it, but there is modern archaeological excavations that have gone on, and they have proven that Nehemiah's wall was about 9 feet thick. So you see what Tabiah's doing? This is nothing more than intimidation.

He's spreading lies. So what do we see here? This is opposition to the work and ridicule, but not just ridicule, but a ridicule fueled by fierce rage and anger. We see a bully calling on all bullies to oppose this work. We see a psychological frontal attack on Nehemiah, the Jews, and the work at hand. And it's nothing more than a frontal attack against God, God's people, and God's work. Now, an application for you, for me, for us, you need to realize that this is far more relevant to today than you know. You need to realize this is the way a bully works in the life of the church. We see this all in the Scriptures.

If you know your Old Testament, you know that Moses faced people like this. Numbers, Chapter 16, there was Korah. He had a rebellion, and he led a rebellion against Moses, the man of God, against the people of God, and the work of God. And if you go study his rebellion, he had a public reason for the rebellion, but he had a private reason for the rebellion. He was nothing more than a sandballot in his day calling a group, a company around him to rebel. He was a bully. Then you have doptrifices in 3 John. 3 John, verse 9. We've studied doptrifices back in our study of 1, 2, and 3 John.

Diotrifices was nothing more than a bully in the church, and he had a company of all the bullies with him, and he was trying to dominate the work of God. And this is far more relevant than you know. I was reminded of this, these truths, and how relevant this is, just in one of our conversations Brother Keith and I had with our friend, Steve McAllister, who was visiting with us last week. We were visiting with him, asking him some questions about some of the church starts that they are part of, those plants, some of the other church partners, even some of the experiences they have had through the years in church work.

And he was talking about splits and major problems in the life of the church. And this is what he said. He looked at Keith and I over at the dinner table, and he said, "Guys, it always starts with someone in a position of authority." He said, "It always starts with a staff person, or it always starts with an elder, and they will lead a rebellion, and they will muster up the troops, and they will cause a large problem in the life of the church." He said, "I've seen it." Now mark it down. I'm telling you church, you mark it down, because you will be in a position one day where you will see it.

It might be in a family member's church, it might be in your parents' church, it might be in a friend of yours' church, and there will be people who will rise up to try to dominate the work, to hijack the work, and they are bullies, and they act just like Sam Ballet, and they act just like Tabiah, and they spread lies, they use half truths, they distort the truth, and they always rise up against the men of God whom God has appointed in the work. I've seen this. Some of my limited amount of time in Christian ministry, I've seen this. I remember seeing this in my home church, and this does happen from time to time. So what do we see?

We see this opposition to the work, and it was in the form of ridicule. Let's look at truth number two. I want us to see Nehemiah's leadership, which was prayer. Nehemiah's leadership, which was prayer. Now notice the transition is very abrupt, because there's a big difference between verses 1-3 and verses 4-5, because immediately Nehemiah says, "Here, O our God, how we are despised." So he just launches into this prayer. Notice that response. Nehemiah, he did not pull out the documentation from the king of Persia, which he would have had in his pocket. Notice he did not speak to them about the call of God that God had on his life.

He had that burden in his heart. He would have been willing to explain that call to any of his Jewish friends. Notice he did not preach to him, Sambalit, and Tamiah, the message of the one true God. Notice Nehemiah, he did not rally his troops to make a show of force. Nehemiah did none of those things. He did what only the mature man of God would do, and that is he prayed. Now remember, I referenced Korah's Rebellion in number 16. When that rebellion manifested itself in Moses' face, what did he do? He prayed all night. And that's what Nehemiah does. Now, three aspects to his prayer I want us to see.

First of all, I want us to see he prayed for God to judge their sin. Isn't that what he says? Learn their reproach on their own heads and give them up for plunder in a land of captivity. We must see that Nehemiah's plea here was for divine justice in the case of kingdom work. It was not that he did not want forgiveness for their sin, but he wanted God to act in justice according to his sovereign purposes. Nehemiah wanted justice for the cause of God more than the forgiveness of their sin. So he prayed for God to judge them. Second, I want you to see that he prayed for God to act and not for them to take vengeance.

All through this prayer, it's about God working, God acting. He dare not take matters into his own hands and take vengeance. So he is praying for God to act and not for them to act and act out in vengeance. He knew that it was not his place to take vengeance, but it was God's. God was sovereign and it was God's place to act according to his will. And then third, I want you to see that he prayed for God's honor and prayed for God's glory in the work. He wanted God to act in such a way that the workers would be honored, the work would be exalted, thus the success of the total work would bring glory to God.

Nehemiah knew that if the work proceeded, that would bring glory to God. So he prayed for God to judge their sin. He prayed for God to act and not for them to take vengeance. And he prayed for God's honor and glory in the work. And so here we must see that Nehemiah immediately acted in prayer. He is expressing his dependence on God, his submission and trust in his sovereign will, and a belief that God would prevail in the work for his glory and honor. He believed that God would prevail. Now for you, for me, for us, how might we learn from this short and simple prayer? It's just two verses. In the face of such opposition, what must we learn?

First, we must learn to turn to God first and not to ourselves. Nehemiah was a great man of God. Nehemiah had the good hand of God on him. He was working in God's will and God's plan with great success. But Nehemiah did not look to himself. He did not look to that call that he had on his life. He did not look to those orders from the King of Persia. He looked to God. And we must learn to look to God first, not to trust our instincts, not to trust our experience, not to trust our own wisdom, not to trust anything about ourselves. And when crisis comes in the life of the church, we must turn first to God.

I love the example of Moses because Korah rose up in rebellion and it's basically like Moses said, "I'm going to pray all night and I'll talk to you tomorrow." Second, we must see that we can ask God to judge injustice and that we can ask God to thwart the plans of those who would hinder God's work. You get that? We can ask God to judge injustice in the life of the church and we can ask God to judge those who hinder God's work. You remember the story of when God was using Moses to lead the Egyptian slaves out of Egyptian slavery? They were slaves? A ragtag group? God was calling them unto Himself to form a great nation?

But do you remember the story when they were going through the Red Sea on dry ground? What did Pharaoh do? Pharaoh changed his mind and Pharaoh mustered up his army, the finest military force on the face of the earth. And what did Pharaoh do? Pharaoh said, "No, I'm going and I'm getting my slaves." And Pharaoh is running right behind them on dry ground just like the Jews. But what did God do? God knocked the wheels off the chariots because God would not let the enemy thwart His plans. This reminds me of a time in my life when I was watching men in the life of the church hijack the work of the church.

This reminds me of a time when I was watching the diatrophies, the big bullies in the church take over. This reminds me of a time I was watching the chorus with their public explanations of what they were doing, but yet they had private motivations for what they were doing. This reminds me of time when I was watching the Sanbalas and the Tabayas wreck the church of God and listen, God led us to pray. "Lord, knock the wheels off of their chariots." This is your church. It is not theirs. And I stand before you today and I'm telling you I'll watch the wheels of the chariots fall off because their plans did not succeed.

It was like sand that went through their hands. We can pray, "Lord, they are wrecking your church. You died for your church. You are coming back. And Lord, please judge their works because they are interfering with your church." That's the kind of man Nehemiah was. So you see how heavy that prayer was? You see the kind of leadership he offered right here just in these two verses. Now let's continue. Like I said earlier, these last two main truths are a lot shorter. Let's learn this truth, number three, main truth number three, the success of the people.

Look at verse 6, "So we built the wall and the whole wall was joined together to half its height." Here we see that the people of God enjoyed success even in the face of this opposition. If we are not careful, we can read through this portion of verse 6. But we need to notice this. They were successful even when it was an uphill journey. That means the voices of Samballat and Tobiah and all of their company was loud, but they were successful. So in application, what do we need to see? We need to see that many times there is tremendous success in kingdom work after difficulty and opposition, and God will ordain it that way.

All through the book of Acts. I mean really we do. All through the book of Acts. There is opposition, there is persecution, and then God would break out in great success. I mean, I even think about what went on with Ananias and Sapphira. They were hypocrites right there in the church of God, and God killed them. And then after that, great success. Then in Acts 7 and 8, there is great persecution, the church scatters, then great success. And so what I want you to see is, many times there will be success after great trial, after great opposition, after it seems like the enemy of God is trying to destroy the work of God.

And we need to understand that if God allows opposition to the work, it is for His purposes. And I believe it is to create a dependence on Him and also to prepare us internally for the new work that He wants to do that is right around the corner. Isn't that what happened with Nehemiah? He expressed a new dependence on Him, and no doubt there was an inner work that God did in Him. So there is a success for the people, but you need to see that it is right behind this difficult opposition. And then fourth, I want you to notice the unity of the people. Number four, notice the unity of the people.

Verse 6 again, "So we built the wall, and the whole wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to the work." Now here we see a wonderful, great work in the hearts of the people, and that is unity. The English Standard, the King James, the New American, read the same. That is a mind to work. This can be translated hearts. Literally, the original language can be translated, "There was a heart to the people to work." Let that sink in. "There was a heart to the people to work." This points to the work that God did in the people, not just Nehemiah.

He did a work in the people, and He used that opposition from Sandballot and his company, and Nehemiah's leadership. But this is an internal spiritual work in them. God ordained the opposition. God allowed Nehemiah to rise up and lead them properly, and therefore there was a work in them. Now, in application, we need to see that true unity is an internal work of God around His kingdom work and purposes. Now, we can rally around a cause. We can rally around a man. We can rally around an idea. But true Christian unity is always an internal work of God in people around His kingdom work and kingdom purposes. And that's what we have here.

We need to see that the unity we strive for in the life of the church must be around the work of the church. And this is the one thing which God can unify all of us to do. Yes, He can do this in me. He can do this in my family. He can do this in you. It does not matter how talented you are. It does not matter your experience. What matters is if you are a part of the body of Christ, and you will allow God to do a work in you, and therefore unify you to this work. I'll give you a great example. Look at the lives of the disciples. What a diverse group. I mean, you've got a diverse group. There's Matthew. He was a sellout to the Romans.

He was a tax collector. Then there's Peter. Peter, who was so impulsive. I mean, you cannot tell me that it was not a great internal work for those two men to have that type of unity. Then there's Simon the Zealot. They were like modern day terrorists. They were called zealots because they were waiting for opposition, a physical rebellion against the Romans. They were called dagger men. So you've got Simon the Zealot, who was a dagger man. They were always armed, ready to kill the Romans and expel them. And then you've got Matthew, who was a Roman tax collector. Then you've got Peter, who is so impulsive. He'll say anything and do anything.

But what did God do? God did a work in them to unify them around what? Kingdom work. So what do we see in verse six? The success of the people and we see this great unity. Now, as I begin to conclude the message, I want to go back to the title. What is the title of the message? Leadership in the face of opposition. Now, why leadership? Why focus on leadership in the title and not verse six about unity? Why not unity in the face of opposition? That would have been a great title to focus more on verse six would have been great. Now, why?

I believe that would be a mistake because if we overlook Nehemiah's leadership in the face of this opposition, I believe we miss the key because God is ordained his men to lead his people in his work. And if you didn't have the work of Nehemiah within the group in the face of opposition, I do not believe these people would have been unified for the work. Now, I'm not trying to make too much of God's men. I'm not trying to make too much of God's leadership, but he is always ordained it that way. And that leads us back, that leads me back to the original prayer that I asked for us. Pray for me.

Pray for Brother Keith that we will be unified in this work. We will be the Nehemiah figures that we need to be. We will be strong, resolute men of God, not depending on ourselves, but depending on him to lead the work, lead you and lead the people. Pray for the future leaders of this church. Pray for the leaders five, ten years from now, because listen, so goes the leadership, so goes the work. Yesterday I caught up with an older minister that I met some years ago. He pastors a church in northern Louisiana. He's got a unique testimony. His dad was a pastor and he has a unique testimony of pastoring the church that his dad pastored.

He's a sweet older gentleman. He's been an encouragement to me. The few times I've talked with him through the years, but lately we've reconnected. He's in his 70s, so he has the added advantage of having men around the block. He said it like this, "I wonder who will lead the church that God's given me when I'm gone." He said, "We look up to some of these men who have pastored and led in great ways." He said this, "All these great works, all these great churches, all these great leaders, when they are gone, if they don't have the right leadership," he went on to say, "those ministries will struggle and struggle and struggle." He's right.

So pray for the leadership of this church. Pray for us. Pray for the men of God that he would bring here to be the leaders for your children in the next generation. So leadership in the face of opposition. Lord Jesus, I thank you for a good day to be here.